A short story about the four misers

The four misers you mentioned should be from The Scholars:

Content introduction

In the late Yuan Dynasty, a village in Zhuji County There is a young man named Wang Mian. Because his family is poor, he has been herding cattle for others since he was a child. He is smart, enlightened, diligent and studious. The lotus he draws is lifelike and ready to be painted. He is well-read and talented. He is unwilling to make friends, let alone seek fame and fortune. When the county magistrate came to visit him, he avoided seeing him; when Zhu Yuanzhang offered him the position of "consulting to join the army," he did not accept it and willingly fled to the Kuaiji Mountains to live an anonymous life.

When the Ming Dynasty was founded, the system of selecting scholars in the form of eight-legged essays was implemented. Wang Mian couldn't help but sigh: Not only will this system of selecting scholars in the form of eight-part essays not be able to select real talents for the country, but I am afraid that the only scholars in the future will be like this. Therefore, they will take the principles of learning, morality, officialdom, and retirement lightly. This is a generation of literati who encountered bad luck! Wang Mian was a hermit who opposed the stereotyped recruitment of scholars and was willing to live in poverty. However, in the society at that time, there were too few people like Wang Mian. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, a hundred years after Wang Mian's death, the literati followed a wrong path obsessed with imperial examination fame.

In the late Chenghua years of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, there was a teacher named Zhou Jin in Wenshang County, Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. In order to get ahead and honor his hometown, he took the imperial examinations many times. However, he was over 60 years old and failed to succeed. Not even a scholar was admitted.

One day, he and his brother-in-law came to the provincial capital and walked into the Gongyuan. He was so moved by the scene that he was so sad that he hit his head on the signal board and fell unconscious. After being rescued, he rolled on the ground and cried so much that blood flowed from his mouth. Several businessmen saw that he was very pitiful, so they collected two hundred taels of silver and donated a prison student for him. He immediately kowtowed to everyone and said, "I, Zhou Jin, turned into a donkey and turned into a horse, so I have to repay the favor!"

Soon, Zhou Jin passed the imperial examination with his qualifications as a supervisor. In an instant, people who were not relatives came to recognize him as relatives, and people who were not friends came to recognize him as friends. Even the school where he taught actually enshrined the "immortality tablet" of "Mr. Zhou". A few years later, he won the Jinshi again, was promoted to the imperial censor, and was assigned to study Taoism in Guangdong. In Guangzhou, Zhou Jin discovered Fan Jin. In order to take care of this 54-year-old boy, he read Fan Jin's paper three times and finally found that it was the best article in the world, word for word, so he promoted Fan Jin to a scholar. Soon after, Fan Jin took the exam again and won the imperial examination.

At that time, because Fan Jin was in a similar situation to Zhou Jin, he was looked down upon at home. His wife yelled at him, and his father-in-law scolded him in every possible way. When Fan Jin's family was worrying about being unable to open the pot and waiting to sell chickens for rice, the good news came that Fan Jin had passed the national examination. Fan Jin was found from the market. After learning the good news, he went crazy with joy. Fortunately, his father-in-law Hu Tuhu gave him a slap in the face, which woke him up and cured him of his madness. In the blink of an eye, Fan Jin's fortune changed. He not only had money, rice, and a house, but also servants and maids. Seeing this, Fan Jin's mother was so happy that her chest couldn't catch her breath, and she died in the west. Butcher Hu was also uncharacteristically saying that he had known for a long time that his son-in-law was a descendant of Wenquxing and would not be like ordinary people. He was even more respectful to Fan Jin. Later, Fan entered the capital to meet Zhou Jin. He was recommended by Zhou Jin and won the Jinshi Scholarship, and was appointed as the Shandong Scholar. Although Fan Jin became prosperous with his eight-part essay, he was only familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics. When others mentioned Su Shi, the literary giant of the Northern Song Dynasty, he thought he was a scholar from the Ming Dynasty, which made a huge joke.

The imperial examination system not only cultivated a group of mediocre people, but also fostered a group of corrupt officials. Jinshi Wang Hui was appointed as the prefect of Nanchang. The first thing he did when he took office was not to inquire about the local security, the livelihood of the people, or the grievances of the case, but to inquire about the local people, what local specialties were there, and what was involved in various cases. The place can be accommodating; then he ordered a number one treasurer, passed all the six-room book offices in the yamen together, asked about the remaining profits of each errand, and asked everyone to return the money to the public. From then on, the yamen was filled with the sound of clasps, abacuses, and boards all day long. The government servants and the common people were all beaten to the point of losing their wits, and they were all shaking in their sleep. But his personal creed is "Three years to clear the prefecture, and one hundred thousand snowflakes and silver."

When the imperial court inspected his political achievements, they unanimously believed that he was "the most capable person in Jiangxi."

Tang Feng, the magistrate of Gaoyao County, strictly enforced various imperial decrees in order to show that he was clean and honest in government. The imperial court had a ban on killing farm cattle. Tang Feng, without asking the reason, actually shackles his father, a Muslim teacher who was doing beef business, to death. The people were filled with indignation and went on strike to strike the market. After the incident. Not only did the Ancha Division not punish Tang Feng, but they accused the injured Hui people of "treacherous men holding the government hostage and punishing them according to the law." Such an "incorruptible" magistrate actually plundered eight thousand taels of silver in one year.

Officials were corrupt and perverted the law, and under the eight-part imperial examination, local tyrants and evil gentry also ran amok. Zhang Jingzhai, who was born in Juren, was a tyrant in the South China Sea. He colluded with the government and took advantage of others. In order to occupy the temple's property, he instigated seven or eight gangsters to falsely accuse the monk of adultery with a woman, so that the monk was in court without any explanation.

Yan Zhihe, a supervisor in Gaoyao County, is a rich man who regards money as everything and has a huge fortune. He was so sick that he couldn't eat enough, was bedridden, and was dying. He still kept thinking about harvesting early rice in the fields, and sent the servants in charge of the village to the countryside. He was worried and just impatient. He was stingy by nature, and his family's rice granary was rotten, and there were many cattle and horses. However, he was reluctant to buy a pound of pork in ordinary times. When he was dying, he still refused to die because there was an extra light bulb in the lamp.

His elder brother Gongsheng Yan Zhizhong is even more of a villain running rampant in the countryside. He forced his neighbor Wang Xiaoer's pig into a pen, and when others came to take it away, he committed murder and broke Wang Xiaoer's brother's legs. He went around blackmailing people, not lending money to others, but forcing them to pay interest; he threatened the boatman by pretending that the cloud cake was a valuable medicine, and lost a few cents of the boat money. After Yan Jiansheng's death, as his elder brother, he forced his sister-in-law to adopt his second son as his son, and attempted to seize his brother's property. He also claimed that this was "a rightful title, but in our country gentry family, these great gifts are not allowed to go wrong." .

The imperial examination system created a group of social worms and poisoned the entire society. In Yueqing County, Wenzhou Prefecture, there was a farmer named Kuang Chaoren. He was originally simple and honest. In order to support his parents, he went out to do small business and lived in Hangzhou. Later, I met Mr. Ma Er, who printed eight-part essays. Mr. Ma Er gave him ten taels of silver and encouraged him to study and make progress. After Kuang Chaoren returned home, he did small business while studying eight-part essay. Soon he was appreciated by Li Zhixian and was promoted to be a scholar. In order to pursue higher fame and wealth, he worked harder to learn and write eight-legged essays. Unexpectedly, something happened to the county magistrate. To avoid being implicated, he fled to Hangzhou. Here, he got acquainted with Jing Lanjiang, the owner of a scarf shop who pretended to be a celebrity, and Pan Sanye, an official in the government office, and learned the skills of taking exams on behalf of others and handling lawsuits. And because of Mr. Ma Er's relationship, he became the "selector" of eight-part essays, and boasted that he had printed 95 anthologies of eight-part essays. Everyone was vying to buy them. People who studied in the five provinces had them on their desks. "The divine position of Kuangzi, the first Confucian scholar".

Soon after, the magistrate of Li County who had promoted him was vindicated and promoted to a capital official. Kuang Chaoren also followed him to the capital. In order to curry favor with the powerful, he abandoned his wife and son and became his mentor. The nephew's wife died in poverty in her hometown. At this time, Master Pan, who had helped him, was imprisoned. Kuang Chaoren was afraid of affecting his reputation and future, so he cut off relations with Master Pan and refused to even take a look. Not only was he ungrateful to Mr. Ma Er who had helped him, he also slandered and ridiculed him, completely degenerating into a beast in disguise who sold his soul.

The imperial examination system not only corrupted people, but was also an accomplice of feudal ethics. Wang Yuhui, a poor scholar in Huizhou Prefecture who was over sixty years old, failed in the imperial examinations every year, but he always abided by the etiquette and education. His third son-in-law died, and his daughter wanted to sacrifice her husband, but her parents-in-law refused. Instead, he persuaded his in-laws to let their daughter die. Then he said to his daughter: "My son, since you are like this, this is something that will leave your name in history. How can I stop you? Just do this." Eight days later, his daughter, wearing white clothes to observe filial piety, died on a hunger strike. He looked up to the sky and laughed and said: "Good death! Good death!" But after the incident, when his daughter's spiritual tablet was sent to the Martyrs' Shrine for public sacrifice, he suddenly felt sad. When he came home and saw his old wife grieving, he couldn't bear it and left home to relax.

Along the way, he mourned for his daughter and was miserable. When he arrived at Huqiu, Suzhou, he saw a young woman in white on the boat. He suddenly thought of his daughter who died wearing mourning clothes, and he choked in his heart, and tears rolled down his face.

All these trends that have been formed since the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty have intensified during the Wanli period. Those who succeed in the examination are considered to be outstanding; those who fail in the examination will be regarded as stupid and incompetent, regardless of their literary talents such as Li Bai or Du Fu or the conduct of Yan Yuan or Zeng Shen. Rich people talk about getting promoted and making a fortune, while poor and humble Confucian students talk about flattery and flattery. Scholars have fallen, and society has become more corrupt. It seems that if we want to find "wonderful people" who are not affected by the stereotypes of the imperial examination, we can only put aside the scholars and look at the common people.

Unexpectedly, a few strange people really appeared in the middle of the market.

One can write. This man's surname is Ji and his given name is Ya Nian. He has been homeless since he was a child and has always found a home in these temples. He has the best calligraphy, but he refuses to learn from the ancients' calligraphy. He just creates his own style and writes freely. He has a perverse personality, but if a mortal wants to ask him to write, he will fast for a day and grind for a day himself. He will not be happy until he is willing. If he doesn't want to, you can let him be a prince, general or prime minister and give him a lot of money, but he won't even look at it. He was unkempt, wearing a tattered straight jacket and a pair of shabby sandals. After writing every day, getting money from others, and eating at home, I didn't want the remaining money, and gave it to a poor person I didn't know. One day when it was snowing heavily, his rotten shoes stepped on the mud at his friend's house. His friend asked him to change his shoes, but he actually said that I can't sit in your house with these shoes? I'm sitting in your house, and I still think I'm flattering you. Once, he saw a box of fine fragrant ink placed in the monk's room. No matter whether the person wanted to write or not, he would just take it and write. When a powerful squire asked him to write, he actually yelled, "I don't know how to write." I'm greedy for your money, but I don't admire your power, and I don't want to borrow your light. How dare you ask me to write!"

Another one is a matchmaker. This man's surname is Wang and Tai. He has loved playing Go since he was a child. He had no way to make a living, so he went to Hujufu area every day to sell fire paper tubes.

On that day, there was a meeting at Miaoyi Temple. Wang Tai walked in and met three or four senior officials, surrounded by two people playing chess. Everyone looked down upon him at first, but as soon as they and Mrs. Wang played half a game, they had to admit defeat. Everyone was shocked and wanted to drag Mrs. Wang to drink. Mrs. Wang laughed and said: "Where in the world is there such a happy thing as killing Yaqi! I killed Yaqi, and I felt so happy. There was even food and wine!" After saying that, she burst out laughing without looking back. Just went.

There are still hermits like them who are indifferent to fame and wealth in the market, but in the eyes of those high-ranking officials, pursuing fame and wealth is the right way.